Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Of the twenty stories in the 2012 PEN/O. Henry Award
stories, I have already read the following six, either because of my
subscriptions to The New Yorker and Harper’s, or because I purchased the books
in which they appeared. Although I have discussed these stories in
previous blogs, I will reread them and make some brief additional comments:

Dagoberto Gilb, “Uncle Rock, “ The New Yorker & Before the End, After the Beginning

Yiyun Li. “Kindness” A Public Space” and Gold Boy,
Emerald Girl

Steven Millhauser, “Phantoms,” McSweeney’s and Best American
Short Stories, 2012

Alice Munro, “Corrie” The New Yorker

Jim Shepard, “Boys Town,” You Think That’s Bad

Mark Slouka, “The Hare’s Mask,” Harper’s

Editor Laura Furman prefaces the book, as usual,
with a brief discussion of “How the Stories Are Chosen.”Furman chooses the twenty stories from
stories that have been written in English and published in a U.S. or Canadian
periodical; unlike the Pushcart Prize stories, individual stories may not be
nominated by editors.

The three guest writers-this
year Mary Gaitskill, Daniyal Mueenuddin, and Ron Rash—are sent the twenty
stories with no author or publication identification and asked to write a brief
essay on their favorite.Gaitskill and
Mueenuddin both chose Yiyun Li’s “Kindness,” a novella-length story from her
book Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, while
Ron Rash chose Alice Munro’s story “Corrie,” which appeared in The New Yorker.It would be naïve to think that Mueenuddin
and Gaitskill did not recognize “Kindness,” since Li’s book got quite a bit of
attention and was nominated for more than one award this past year.And I seriously doubt that Ron Rash, who has
published in The New Yorker, would
not have recognized the work of Alice Munro. But it would be cynical to think
that these writers chose these stories because they recognized and admired who
wrote them.

Four of the stories are from The New Yorker, three from Zoetrope,
two from Ecotone, two from Threepenny Review, two from Harper’s, and two from the
less-well-known A Public Space. The other five are from New England Review, Santa Monica Review, Orion, McSweeney’s, and Subtropic. I have no idea if Furman
read all the several hundred stories in the periodicals sent to her or whether
she had a couple of editorial assistants; she thanks Mimi Chubb and Kate
Finlinson, as well as the staff of Anchor books, but she does not say what role
they played in the selection of the twenty stories. Nor does Furman say what criteria
she, or her first readers, use to make the selections or what role Anchor Books
had in the selection. For example, she does
she indicate if Anchor requests that she choose stories or authors that might sell more books.Nor does she indicate if she chooses stories
with some variety for reader interest.Does she choose solely those stories she “likes” best or those stories
she thinks are the “best” stories?

It is not insignificant to have one of your stories
chosen for the PEN/O. Henry collection, for publishers like to say on the back
cover that an author of a collection is a “PEN/O. Henry Award winner,” not
simply that a story was “included in” the collection.And it goes without saying that if a writer
has several stories chosen for the PEN/O. Henry collection, he or she has a
better chance of landing a book contract for a collection of stories.

In her introduction to the 2012 PEN/O. Henry, Furman
focuses on the predictable question that folks always pose at author readings:
What is the origin of this story?It is
only natural that Furman would discuss this, for in the section of the book
entitled “The Writers on Their Work,” the authors are obviously asked to talk
about the origin of their stories.This too
is only natural when you think of it, since what else would authors talk
about?They cannot talk about what a
story means, for authors do not like writing a story to illustrate a meaning.In fact, they are often fond of saying they
do not know what a story means.Furman
says there can be no definitive answer to a question about a story’s origin, “because
the best stories are manifold and open to multiple understandings…. Not even
the writer really knows where the story came from.If that were known, why bother to write.”

As I read these twenty stories and comment on them
during Short Story Month, I will also comment on the relationship between the
stories and the author’s statements about their origins.

One other preliminary note about my reading these
stories:Last year, I said that although
I used a tablet reader to read “disposable” fiction, i.e. novels and
biographies, I always bought actual honest-to-god books for short stories,
which are never disposable because I read them again and again and often write
about them.However, my wife bought me a
Kindle Fire for my birthday in February, and I am enjoying using it—to watch an
occasional film on Netflix, to listen to modern jazz on Pandora, to check the
weather in a place I plan to visit, etc.

When Amazon listed the publication of PEN/O. Henry
2012, last month, I started to order the book, but then suddenly decided to get
it in a Kindle edition.The price
difference between the paperback and the Kindle edition was not that different—about
a buck.Unless I bought another book to
bring the total up to $25.00, I would have to pay a few dollars shipping.Moreover, I wanted the book immediately
rather than having to wait for three days because I was going out of town for a
week.So I ordered it as a Kindle
edition.And sure enough, I had it
immediately.

So this is my first experience in reading short stories
in a tablet format.As I am reading
these stories I will comment on this experience for those of you who are firmly
committed to books, as I am, or who are contemplating shifting from beloved
books to technological tablets.

I have just started reading the stories, but have
notice a few aggravations and a few pleasures already.

I like being able to
read in bed without bothering my wife with the light on, for the Kindle Fire
has a lighted screen. However, I do not
like it that I cannot read while sitting in the backyard, for the Kindle screen reflects sunlight. I like being
able to listen to modern jazz or classical music on Pandora while I read.

I have found that I have no reluctance to pick up
the Kindle and read a story, whereas sometimes I don’t really feel like reading
a book.I don’t know what that
means.

I like being able to highlight text on the Kindle,
but I despise trying to write notes on the on-screen mini keyboard.Maybe if I was used to texting, it would be
easier; I don’t know.

I don’t like
the fact that the Kindle does not provide page numbers, either the original
book page numbers or Kindle page numbers (which change if you change the font
size).I will probably have to order a
copy of the book if I plan to write about the stories in an article or book,
for I cannot document page numbers otherwise.I also like to flip ahead when I am reading a story to see how many
pages are left; it is not as easy to do that with the Kindle, for I have to rub
my finger or tap each page to get to the end, and since no page numbers are
listed on the table of contents, I cannot check there either.

As I write about these stories this month, I will
make more comments about reading stories on the Kindle Fire. If you have your own experiences with using a
table reader, please comment. In case you want to read along with me, I plan to
discuss the stories in order as they appear in the book, writing about three or
four in each post. I would appreciate hearing your comments on the stories
also.The PEN/O. Henry collection is
only about ten bucks in either paperback or Kindle edition—a real bargain regardless
of which you choose.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I'm so glad to see this - I just started this volume myself, so I'll enjoy seeing your comments.

Right off the bat I can tell you I'm perplexed by "Phantoms." It hit the trifecta - BASS, Pushcart and now PEN/O - and I just don't "get" it. Fine, there are ghosts or something in this town, and it's amusing, but I don't see why it's so acclaimed.

Oddly, I just learned that Seth Fried just won his second Pushcart for "Animacula" which is similar in format - a scientific report on microorganisms with unusual properties - and I loved it.

I'm eager to see what you have to say about some of these. "The Hare's Mask" was one of my favorites from BASS; "Uncle Rock" fell flat for me; and "Boys Town" was overly effective, in that I found it uncomfortably disturbing - but I can't really blame the writer for that, now can I.

Thanks for your comments, Karen. I love Millhauser's work, but was not so sure about "Phantoms" when I first read it. I will look at it again, however. I have not got the new Pushcart yet, but will order it. I will comment on "Uncle Rock" in a day or two and the rest in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for reading my blog.

Ten Anniversary of My Blog

Friday, Nov. 16, is the tenth anniversary of my blog. I have been taking some time off because I have been working on a new book on the short story. I have submitted a proposal to a publisher and am waiting for a reply. I will let you know when I hear from them. Thank you for continuing to read essays in my archives.

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About Me

Born and raised in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Received B.A. from Morehead State University in 1963; M.A. from Ohio University in 1964; Ph.D. from Ohio University in 1966. Taught at California State University, Long Beach from 1967 to 2007. Retired and currently writing and blogging.

Dubliners Centenial

One hundred years ago, the great collection of stories Dubliners by James Joyce appeared. If you are interested in my comments on that collection, see my posts in April 2012 when the book was featured in Dublin's "One City, One Book."